Tucker and Dale are two well-meaning hillbillies who just bought the vacation home of their dreams - a run-down, lakefront cabin in the middle of the woods. Only their peace is disrupted when a group of rowdy college students choose their area of the forest to go camping. When one of the girls falls into the lake (a result of Tucker and Dale startling her), they bring her back to their cabin to bandage her up. The catch: when they tell her friends they have her, the teens think they had kidnapped her. A chain of hilarious misunderstandings ensue, consisting of the teenagers accidentally killing themselves in front of the unsuspecting (and truly baffled) Tucker and Dale.